Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 845-powered virtual reality headset

Virtual reality is finally starting to become more mainstream. Prices are coming down on headsets, and more content is becoming available. Many companies are starting to get into the virtual reality space, and even more are trying to create wire-free experiences.

One downside to virtual reality has always been the cables required for high-quality content. But, that might change with Qualcomm’s latest product.

Today, Qualcomm announced a Snapdragon 845-powered virtual reality headset. The Snapdragon 845 is the latest offering from Qualcomm in its mobile processor lineup and will be found in most high-end Android phones launched this year.

The Snapdragon 845 is around 30% faster than previous generation mobile processors and could be a real game changer when it comes to virtual reality. The Snapdragon 845 can support up to two 2400 x 2400 pixel displays at 120 frames per second.

To put that type of display into perspective, the HTC Vive Pro only has 1400 x 1600 displays. Qualcomm’s offering will present much sharper images.

This new virtual reality headset from Qualcomm will also feature foveated rendering, which means that the headset can track eye movements. Up until now, virtual reality headsets have given a uniform image no matter where the user was looking.

This is fine in most situations, but foveated rendering will allow the headset to track wearers’ eye movements and only show in focus what the person is looking at. This saves both power and performance as the headset is only really displaying what you look at fully, with the rest being slightly lower resolution as it’s just in your peripheral areas.

With four cameras, two inside to track your eyes, and two outside to track the room, Qualcomm’s virtual reality headset has quite the setup going for it.

Qualcomm’s headset also features a room-scale six degree tracking system to be able to track head movements, which means that this headset will provide great accuracy and precision tracking when you’re in virtual reality.

There is no availability or pricing notes for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845-powered virtual reality headset yet, but if it follows previous flagship products, we can expect to know more in the coming months.

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